There have been many devices and contrivances that have been created to assist in the moving and transporting of items from place to place. Ever since the invention of the wheel, man has realized that it is easier to push and pull items that need to be moved than it is to pick the items up and carry them.
In modern life, there remains a need for a small, portable and compact cart that can be used on an "as-needed" basis to move items around the home or workplace. Presently, the typical full size shopping cart found in a grocery store is often used for that task but it has the drawback of being large and bulky making it difficult to find a storage space for the shopping cart in an average home or office. It is also inconvenient to store items for transport in a shopping cart since the item must be small and light enough to be lifted over the sides of the basket of the cart.
Smaller personal sized shopping carts may also be used. These carts have the advantage of being foldable so that storage is convenient but these carts have limited carrying space and the items to be transported need to lifted into the basket. The weight capacity of these shopping carts is also quite limited.
Many offices utilize a flat bed type cart which can carry heavy items. The overall size of these carts (typically five to six feet in length with a handle up to three to four feet off the floor) make them particularly inconvenient for use in an office or home. These flat bed carts do not fold for storage and there is no reasonable way to transport these flat bed carts from location to location since they are much too heavy and bulky to be transported by a single person.
There is also a need for a small, portable cart that can be used when a person is traveling. It is often necessary to transport a number of luggage bags and other accessories that the traveller needs on his journey. The typical fold up luggage rack is quite small and can barely accommodate two pieces of luggage let alone the other items that a person normally takes on a trip, especially an overseas journey. There is a need for a portable folding cart that can carry up to 300 pounds or more of luggage and accessories, yet will still be foldable into a compact size small enough to be transported in a carrying bag by a single person. The portable folding cart also needs to be small enough to fit into the overhead compartment or under the seat on an airplane.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cart for transporting items that itself can be easily folded into a compact storage assembly that can be stored in a carrying bag and can be transported by a single person.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a portable folding cart that has a generally rectangular platform with foldable side members and foldable cross braces, a handle comprising a pair of upright members having telescoping segments and a cross member joining the upright members and a plurality of wheels mounted to the platform. The handle folds into a collapsed position adjacent the platform and the platform further folds up so that the resulting assembly is quite compact.
It is an advantage of the present invention that a cart suitable for transporting items can be completely collapsed into a small compact assembly that can be stored in a carrying bag and easily transported by a single person.